Updates

Many years ago, when i became fan of Cyber Team in Akihabara in the year 2001, i and others fans in that time had the same problem: there was not information of ADG in the Net.

Ten years ago, Firefox, Facebook, and Google, did not exist. I had to use Internet Explorer and Yahoo! Search. Even so, i could not find any info, nor pictures, and of course videos and mp3 were an impossible dream.

Until the day that i found dennogumi.org.

The founder made something impossible at the time: to obtain lots of detailed info of the characters, production, movie, he suceeded to contact other fans, who helped him making Fan Fics and Fan Arts.

But the most remarkable: he was the first to share the songs in MP3 and videos like the Fusion of Hibari, the Opening, the Ending, and the Movie Ending.

Thanks to him, we learned about the weight, height, and blood type of the ADG girls. Who were the seiyuus, he told us about the Manga and many more things..

After that, other ADG sites appeared using the same info and files, sometimes with his approval, sometimes... no.

My name is Luca Beltrame, I'm 33 years old and I'm a scientist working in the

field of biology.

> Where are you from?

I'm from Italy.

> Do you remember the first time that you knew of Cyber Team in Akihabara?

That was in the early months of 1999. I was watching with a friend the last

episodes of Lost Universe, which someone from Japan had taped and sent to him,

and the last epiaode of Akihabara Dennogumi was on that tape as well. I

watched it, and although I couldn't make much sense of it (who could, watching

the final episode first?) I believed it was worth investigating. I then found

out that the first laser disc was available and I did a bold move, buying it

from Japan and having someone copy it on a VHS tape so I could watch it.

> What was that you liked in a beginning?

It looked like a variant of the usual magical girl anime with some extra

twists, something which I already liked, so it was worth watching for me.

> Wich personage do you liked , and why?

Hmm, that's a though choice. Probably Hibari, because I have a tendency of

siding with the main character.

> Why do you decide to create a page dedicated to Cyber Team in Akihabara?

Because there were no information at all about it. I remember spending hours

looking for the tiniest bit of data, and finding nothing. At the time, easy

access to the episodes was close to impossible (it was a miracle one could

*buy* them) so I thought it would be nice to have a resource to gather said

information.

> If my memory is correct, you had help. Who helped you?

A number of people over the years, and I'm grateful for their help. Most wrote

extras, or wrote summaries and texts when I couldn't make more frequent

updates. Most were from the southern parts of Asia, where ADG had been shown

on the AXN network, if I recall.

I don't remember all their names, but I'd still like to extend my heartfelt

thanks for helping.

> Outside the internet, what was the thoughts the people of your surroundings about your page?

Well, I doubt anyone knew of it. Internet picked up only later, and besides

the anime market in Italy was and still is extremely small.

> Many consider Cyber Team in Akihabara a series for little girls. What do you think of that?

Well, that's not entirely true. The first episodes were meant for a younger

audience (you can see that) but when the stuff about occultism and Rosenkreuz

comes in, there's a definite change of tone. Episodes like the penultimate or

episodes 18 and 20 are perfect examples of this.

> In the year 2000, when nobody couldn't find any picture of Cyber Team in Akihabara, you did. The same problem appeared with the multimedia, the videos (intro, ending of the series, and ending of the film) and the songs in MP3. Where do you obtained the multimedia?

That's easy: I did them. The laser discs came with a handful of images,

character profiles and so on. I scanned them, touched them up, and readied for

uploads. I personally colored the Diva images from the booklet that came from

the first LD. As for multimedia, I got the last episodes on DVDs instead (as

they were cheaper) and personally selected and encoded the various clips. Same

for the film (which I bought online). As for the songs, I'm afraid I don't

remember if I did them myself or found them elsewhere.

> There was some Fan Arts and Fan Fics in the page, where do you obtained that?

I did a call during the birth of the page, or said I could accept fan art and

fan fiction, so I started getting that via mail. Unfortunately I lost a lot of

these due to a hard disk crash back in the days.

> Thanks to you, the characters' information published in your page (name, date of birth, weight, height, is used in all the published descriptions of the series even today, where do you obtained that?

Those were on the leaflets inside the DVDs and LDs. One or two per LD, if I

remember.

> Many of the images that that appears in the Web, appeared originally in your page, that you think of that?

Well, I can't claim ownership as I don't own the copyrights (TBS and so on

does): at first I was annoyed by it but nowadays I think it was proof that my

own page got viewed a lot.

> Has any fan contacted you to obtain archives, or articles of the series?

So far no. That said, most of the page is still viewable on the Wayback

Machine at www.archive.org.

> Ever since you inaugurated the page, until you decided to change the subject of the same. What was the level of visits?

I don't remember the exact figures (the service I used shut down) but it was

around tens of visits per day. Considering that I did it on my spare time, I

think it was pretty successful.

> Do you have some articles of Cyber Team in Akihabara (DVD, dolls, merchadising, magazines, etc…?

I have nowadays the Japanese DVDs, the USA release by ADV, the movie DVD and

the manga, if I recall correctly.

> There is a history behind this image?

Well, at the time I reached 20,000 hits and it was a huge (in my view) success

for a page that was basically built out of thin air. This image is a fan art

made by an Australian artist I was in contact with at the time, which I asked

if he (kindly) could do for me.

> Finally, you have something to say to all the fans like me, that are thankful by all the things that you have contributed?

I'm honored that I was still able to make a splash after so many years, and

thankful that someone has kept the information flowing around. So, thanks to all of you.

Now you can see that the site is only in spanish, if you visit all the sections of this page, you will see that there is a lot of info to translate. It took me three months to upgrade the page, i dont know how much time i will need to make the english version.